Deployment Solution

Hi folks,

Wonder can anyone help me with this! I need to reimage a computer suite full of Inter-based Apple IMACs and wonder can anyone help with me with this as I don’t have a clue where to start with this!

Our DC is setup and working fine and can do everything that is expected of it in a Windows environment but I wonder can someone point me in the right direction as to how do I go about creating and deploying an apple Mac image in my classroom.

Questions I have and would appreciate your advice on: -

1. Do I need to install an Altiris Client onto the Mac similar to the AClient on Windows so the Mac is visible in my DC to commence creating an image from that Mac? Where do I get this agent?
2. What is the process of creating an image from the Mac? We currently have Linux and Dos setup as pre-boot environments – can I use my existing pre-boot setup to create and deploy the image or do I need to change or add something and if so can you please explain the process?
3. Can I use PXE boot on Macs and if so how do I go about setting this up on a Mac so the Mac is available to send jobs to in Altiris?

The above are a few fundamental and important issues I know I need to understand and I would be most grateful if you could help me with this project!

Feel free to provide details of anything I have left out re imaging Macs!  Hopefully someone reading this will have come through this path before i.e. have a good solid solution in place for windows and now need to branch into getting an imaging solution for Macs.

Any help, advice or guidance greatly welcome and appreciated!!

Kind regards,

Tony

Here is some information on MAC imaging from my previous two implementations of it and in my lab.

First, in order to perform imaging for MAC's you must have a MAC OS X Server. This is a requirement as MAC's use a specialize version of Netboot and not PXE.

Secondly, you have to create your own "Boot" image for MAC. As we can't use WinPE, LinuxPE or DOS and actually the Netboot portion is actually installed on the MAC OS X Server. Also, if this MAC OS X server is on a seperate network than the clients, you will have to configure UDP forwarding (ip helper in the Cisco world), for the MAC OS X server also.

Thirdly, once the MAC image is setup, to "Network Boot", all you have to do is upon bootup of the MAC, hold down the 'N' key. You should then see a globe turning, that means it is looking for an Apple Netboot Server.

As for setting up the MAC Netboot image and server, below is a link to the Mac Imaging document that will explain this,

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO8571 

However, a couple notes not explained in the article. First, whatever imaging of MAC you are sending to your clients (Snow Leopard v10.6), the Mac OS X Server, has to be at the same level.

Secondly, during the image process, if you keep getting -99 errors, message me. This is a known bug and I have gotten implementation but may you will not. If you do, I can tell you how to create the image manually (I usually do this anyhow) and I can get you the script I wrote to deploy the image.

Also remember we can manage Macs with Deployment Solution. So in your image, you could include the Altiris MAC/Linux agent. This enables you to run scripts, install software, etc... in the future after their imaged. Remote control can be handled either by enabling VNC in your image or using Apple's Remote desktop software (Priced reasonible at like $499 for unlimited licenses).

Hope this helps your MAC imaging

David Ramazetti

Senior Technical Solutions Consultant

XCEND Group

Hi David,

Thank you so much for the info you provided above!

Ok this is were we are at! We do have a MAC OS X Server (10.4.11) up and running and that netboot stuff working as when I hold down the N key it does show me the globe thing you mentioned and brings me into a utility to allow me to chose an image to restore. We also have that Apple Remote Desktop think you mention.

Yesterday I spent the day getting my Mac ready and last night I left it creating an image using the net restore helper utility. When I came in this morning it had completed successfully and a large dmg file had been created.  Can I ask, is this dmg file the image I need or how does it compare to the boot image you mentioned?

My question now is how do I go about getting this dmg file set so that when I hold down the N key it is there as an option that I can restore that image or better still how can I push that dmg file down to a Mac from my Altiris DC?  I tried going into the System Image utility and playing about with it but I can’t seem to get it to work plus I’m not even sure if this is where I need to be!  Unfortunately the knowledge base article you mentioned (which hopefully would have helped me with the Boot image) - KB 44067 isn’t available anymore and the link it now take me to isn’t relevant at all.

That script you mentioned, do you think it would work and allow me to deploy the dmg image on my Macs?  If so then yes please if you could send it to me I’d me most grateful!

I really appreciate your help on this and I look forward to hearing from you again!

Kind regards,

Tony